Are these "15 Days of August" a lenten period for the Roman Catholics? The "Little Italy" neighborhood in my area, surrounding the long time Roman Catholic Holy Rosary Church, celebrates "the Feast," as it's referred to in the local secular community, with a 4 day festival, 3 of which are before the feast day, and includes eating meat, and drinking alcohol, etc. Is this period considered a lenten period, perhaps more relaxed than the Lent before Easter? If not today, is there an older tradition that this period was a lenten period in the Roman Catholic Church?

Also, how about Advent? I thought I'd read that it is supposed to be a lenten period, more relaxed than Lent before Easter (contemplative, preparatory), but in practice, the lenten period is ignored.

Any knowledge of how the Roman Catholic Church treats or treated these periods?

Unfortunately, Roman Catholics have largely given up obligatory fasting. When I was a kid, Catholics fasted from meat on Fridays and during Lent; they gave up the Friday fast after Vatican II, and nowadays, only fast on the Fridays in Lent.

Logged

The end of the world is as near as the day of your death;watch and pray.

In the pre-Reformation past in England the Advent fast was kept strictly and was known as St Martin's Lent because it started at St Martinstide on November 11th. It had been kept in the West since the 4th century. I don't know when, between the 15th/16th century and now, the Roman Catholic Church relaxed all of the fasting rules.

In the pre-Reformation past in England the Advent fast was kept strictly and was known as St Martin's Lent because it started at St Martinstide on November 11th. It had been kept in the West since the 4th century. I don't know when, between the 15th/16th century and now, the Roman Catholic Church relaxed all of the fasting rules.

Father Peter

There are still many devout Catholics of the Latin rite who keep the St. Martin's fast in a strict manner. The name of the St. Martin's fast and its history is still taught in religious classes so children learn that history as well. There are no longer strict rules for how to keep the fast but the idea that Advent is a penitential season is not a stranger in the Latin rite.

There's not a whole lot of pouring of ashes on ones head so to speak, so it is not visible as it once was, but the teaching is not lost entirely and each year I hear more and more people locally talking about the St. Martin's fast. There actually is an informal sense among some Catholics that fasting is more important that the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council indicated and they are returning to it voluntarily. I think it would be an error to discount those people.

The Dormition fast is very Eastern. I know the Nestorians have it, as well. Probably the Miaphysites have it, too.The Catholics have the so called "quatuor tempora", a very specific Western thing:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ember_days

The Dormition fast is very Eastern. I know the Nestorians have it, as well. Probably the Miaphysites have it, too.The Catholics have the so called "quatuor tempora", a very specific Western thing:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ember_days

Ember and Rogation days are still kept by traditional Roman or Latin rite Catholics...yes.

With all due respect, but a few ROCOR parishes are not really the best indicator of what is the Western fasting tradition.It's a Byzantinization, for sure, like their insertion of the epiklesis in the Roman canon.